Clips: Axe FX 2 XL / Matrix GT1000FX / Rectifier 2x12 cab V30s (SM57/e906/MD421)

guitarfishbay

Right.  I did these yesterday.  These are my home patches, dialled in exactly as I use them at home, close mic'd.  

Starts off clean and gets dirtier.  I usually do one pass single tracked then play the rest double tracked.  Mic is listed in the clip title, always the same mic twice with no position changes per mic.

Picture is representative of what I did with the mics, obviously there were cables involved!

So what do people think?  If Drew hadn't forgotten to not post about me owning an Axe FX I was going to post these clips blind.  Do you think they sound good?  Like a valve amp?  Do you think they suck?  Be honest here.

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Some footnotes:

Chosing mic positions for each amp individually would've taken ages, so I scatter shot multiple mics on the cab, recorded all at once, and picked the one that best represented the tone.  There is a small amount of EQ as appropriate (low/high pass) just because again picking a mic position for every single amp would've been a huge job which I didn't have time for.

All the patches are just amp blocks, except the Recto 2 Red Modern which is boosted with a TS808 (pretty standard settings, low drive, high level, tone just about 12 IIRC).  On all the amps I used the following LF settings - freq 114.2 hz, amount 5.79, and Q of 3.150.  

After that all the amps have zero advanced tweaks.  I've just adjusted Gain, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Depth (Resonance), and Master Volume, which I consider to be standard controls as per a 'real' amp.  I don't find it takes me long to get a tone I like through my cab now that I've got some LF settings I like.

I didn't use the i5 at all, the 57 came out better to me every time IMO.

guitarfishbay

If you go to the soundcloud page you can download the .wavs.  Just noticed that sometimes chrome doesn't let me scroll to the bottom of the playlist - the final amp should be the Engl Savage.  If you can't see it on the forum just go to the soundcloud page and you should be able to find it.

Fiftyshadesofjay

Pretty interesting to listen too, good work!

I think there's some really great sounds there, I'm especially impressed with the unboosted rectifier clip, that really captured the sound of the original amp. The clean stuff was good too.

I wasn't so sure about the mid gain stuff, especially the Marshall tones, they didn't seem to have the roar and presence I'd expect and felt a little flat? 

guitarfishbay

Cheers for listening.

Well I dialled them in a little dark, presence is pretty low on all of them, I just preferred that in the room.  You can get a lot more presence/high end out of them if you want.  Also worth noting all my guitars are strung 11-56 and tuned to C# - I reckon thinner strings and standard tuning would've sounded brighter as well.  And again, I could've moved the mics to a different position for those clips to increase brightness.

I guess I can use this thread to gauge a few additional clips to do another time.  These are just my home use patches dialled in as they please me.

guitarfishbay

Another thing - I think familiarity with the amp helps a lot.  I got totally lost trying to work out the Mark IV model, ended up checking out the manual for the real amp and still I didn't really like what I came up with.  But I've heard some good DI recordings of the Mark IV model so I'm assuming it can sound great through a cab too.

My main live patch is really simple.  Just a 6505, volume pedal, two delays and an EQ.  I also have a CA3+ clean channel, for some reason I prefer it up loud to the Twin.  When I reduce volume on the 6505 it blends in the first delay, increase volume that delay gets switched off.  If I switch to clean delay 2 gets switched on.  If I want my lead tone it is the 6505 with an EQ to give a small lift plus delay 2.  No advanced tweaks on any of it.  One of my scenes has a reverb infront of the 6505 for some distorted echoey ambient thing I do on one solo.

The only advanced tweak I've done is on one alternate patch where I need to switch on a Rat through the clean channel, I went in to the advanced EQ to get the tone right on the Rat.

I'm really not finding the Axe as difficult to use as some people seem to have, but I do think a lot of that is in the LF values when using a SS poweramp - with 'incorrect' vaues the punch and thump just doesn't feel right.  I've not taken my own measurements but the measurements I am using are based on measurements made by a member of the Fractal Forum who has the same cab as me.

I would still like to try a valve power amp one day but for now I'm really happy with how the tones I need to use sound through my cab.  Everything else is just gravy to me, plus it stops me spending more money on amps (for now anyway! never say never!).  My Axe/Matrix rack weighs less than my flightcased real pedal board, got to love that too.

Drew_TNBD

Well... I really like the clean tones. They're pretty good and they sound dynamic. The AC TB SM57 clip is really damn nice.

By and large I'm not feeling the mid-gain clips. They seem too dark to me, but maybe that is what you're going for. They sound like amps... but I don't think they sound as good as a cranked valve amp. There is something lacking that I'm struggling to put a finger on. Heft... weight... something lacking that isn't quite related to frequency. You can hear it in the Dirty Shirley clip, around 0:15... the palm mute there doesn't jump out at you like a real amp does. It's too flat, fuzzy, and lacks bite.

The AFD clip is lacking lowend for me. The tone is nice, but isn't quite where I would personally want it. The 6505 SM57 clip is closer for me.

Recto 1 red has way too much flubbiness on the lowend for my tastes. I found that quite difficult to clean up myself when dialing in that amp as well though. I think it's just what recto's do.

I think of the high-gains, the 5153 red is my favourite. But it's also lacking a bit of punch.

I think overall... there seems to be a lack of punch. It could be the Axe or the Matrix, or it could be microphone positioning. Hard to tell really.

guitarfishbay

Probably a mixture of all 3.  Also - as I said these are purely my home patches as I like them.  Dialled in for how I play at home, not dialled in for the mics.

Actually dialling each in to sound impressive recorded + positioning the mics per clip would take ages with all the back and forth A/B'ing for mic positioning since I'm in the same room as my cab.  And I didn't want to spend ages on this - even doing it quickly took the whole afternoon.  The 6505 clip is pretty close to how my band patch sounds, just slightly different EQ for home.

There's more travel in the EQ controls in all the clips, the only one that has anything dimed is the 6505 which has depth on 10.

Another thing - the volume wasn't very high.  Above regularly reasonable home volume but not near band volume.  On the Axe FX my Output 1 volume knob is at 1/3.  It goes all the way up at rehearsal.  I don't have an SPL meter or else I would have checked it.  I leave the volume on my Matrix at about 7 at all times.

guitarfishbay

Right I'll re-record the 5153 and 1987x.  I don't think I want to re-record the whole test.  Part of the reason I got the Axe FX was to be able to avoid this stuff! I'll set up just the 57 and see what I come up with at some point soon, possibly tonight

Fretwired

Some great sounds there ... you nailed the Scorpions sound .. great work .. :-)

Fiftyshadesofjay

Drew_fx said:

Well... I really like the clean tones. They're pretty good and they sound dynamic. The AC TB SM57 clip is really damn nice.

By and large I'm not feeling the mid-gain clips. They seem too dark to me, but maybe that is what you're going for. They sound like amps... but I don't think they sound as good as a cranked valve amp. There is something lacking that I'm struggling to put a finger on. Heft... weight... something lacking that isn't quite related to frequency. You can hear it in the Dirty Shirley clip, around 0:15... the palm mute there doesn't jump out at you like a real amp does. It's too flat, fuzzy, and lacks bite.

The AFD clip is lacking lowend for me. The tone is nice, but isn't quite where I would personally want it. The 6505 SM57 clip is closer for me.

Recto 1 red has way too much flubbiness on the lowend for my tastes. I found that quite difficult to clean up myself when dialing in that amp as well though. I think it's just what recto's do.

I think of the high-gains, the 5153 red is my favourite. But it's also lacking a bit of punch.

I think overall... there seems to be a lack of punch. It could be the Axe or the Matrix, or it could be microphone positioning. Hard to tell really.

That's why I was quite impressed with the Recto clip, it may not be to your taste but it certainly sounded accurate, they sound just like that.